Perhaps it is Kalanzar who inspects the place for the night the longest. Everything in Underdark makes him distrust. In the end, he agrees that this place is safe (and he himself is barely standing due to fatigue). So far, all the bad things he has heard since childhood about the Underdark are coming true. He retreats to a dark corner of the cave and sits down to meditate again. He prays in silence, soundlessly, but even through his clothes you can see how one or another star flashes on the body of a dark elf.
It may not have been a predator she was familiar with nor were her companions sheep but Maddy reacted all the same to the threat. Those she traveled with were essentially her flock and she inwardly cursed herself for not seeing the threat before it appeared.
Drawing her sword, Maddy charged forward aiming for the creature’s head. She made herself a target for the octopus-like monster so that it would leave the others alone. With blade, bolt, and magic the group quickly defeated their foe.
She then watched in fascination as Ziyad expertly butchered the creature to make use of its bladder to carry water for the group. ”That was brilliant! I wouldn’t have thought to do that.” She paused briefly before adding, ”If it gets to be too heavy for you to manage, I’d gladly carry it.”
The luminescent algae proved to be a huge benefit to the group as they moved through the Underdark. Their physical progress gave Maddy hope that they would reach Shuushar’s city safely. When they finally reached a safe place to rest longer than just to catch their breath, the young woman gratefully sank to the ground to rest. Knowing the importance of staying vigilant against predators, especially while resting, Maddy suggested, ”If we’re going to sleep here, we should arrange watches so that someone is always awake to be aware of danger. I’m used to functioning on small amounts of sleep so I can take watch in the middle of our rest.
Or whatever works best for everyone. I can take whatever watch.”
A valuable thought, Maddy. I only need to meditate for 4 hours, so I can take most of the duty on myself. He smiles. But I'll still need help.
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Ksenia doesn't notice anything occurring until a giant octopus looking creature seems to drop from the ceiling, smoking and diced half to pieces by her companions. As Ziyad butchers it to extract the bladder, Ksenia cocks her head at the general shape of the creature, listens to her stomach rumble, and declares "Looks like we're having underdark calamari for dinner tonight!"
She gets a knife out and begins to carve off some of the thing's meat.
Actually when I was writing that I was thinking Ziyad would have a thin coating on his shoulders from carrying him around as a hat for so long
Ksenia manages to carve about lbs of meat from the stalctite squid, and it turns out to be quite palatable when cooked.
When the group is settled down for the "night", Topsy and Turvy volunteer to take first watch. Buppido volunteers for second, then Maddy for third. Ksenia takes the middle watch, then Kalanzar finishes out the "night" by himself, watching the low fog swirl lazily through the cavern, lit by some internal force.
But that's not right. The lantern should be far south of the star circle. And Jassa's Dagger - why was it in the Woman Warrior's back? Corellian only had 11 stars, not 13, and the gaps seemed to burn blackly. The pinpricks of awareness on your skin become pain, hot and burning like a wasp sting, but many, so many of them. The sky is wrong, corrupt, and it hurts....
Suddenly, she opens her eyes, and hollow black eye-sockets somehow stare at you. "You need to tell my father how I died," she says, her voice pained and raspy. "Promise me you'll tell my father."
"Father?" you say, confused. "I don't know him."
"Daughter?" you hear a familiar voice. There, in the darkness at the back of the cave, is a familiar dwarven man, your father. He has been beaten badly, and is covered in dried blood. One arm is bent at an impossible angle. "Why did you leave, daughter? Where are you? I can't see."
But where's Maggie? You told her to hide, but now you can't find her. You run between the sheep, slipping in entrails and offal, calling her name. You see a flash of colour, and turn to see your brother, your twin, your Matty. He stands where he wasn't standing a moment ago, a wand in one hand and a staff in the other. Bloody tears are seeping from the corner of his eyes.
Your understanding of the cavern grows, and you sense the bodies of your companions nearby. But they are cold and hard, long dead. And beyond the cavern, a smooth curved wall. The bat can't sense what's behind it. But you follow the curve with your mind, and realize that you are inside a crystal sphere. A sphere held in the hand of a dead elven wizard, who stares upon your trapped form with undisguised delight.
***
Save
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Advantadge used, now at zero
This is not you Yzalina, you are far more attractive, you would need to have me bound to sacrifice me, and you would beat out the crap of the f!@*ing creepy stalkers, and then force them to pay you after producing a forged document that they all hired you as a Domina! The only way thats possibly you is if someone zapped you with some type of regression spell. If that was the case, snap the f!## out of it, you are far to smart for that!
Whoever you are, Mrs. Pretending to be Yzalina, do you want to be as awesome as her? Well, start now! Lady Nocticula gives no f~~#s about what you have done, but if you go for her, you can become anything. I can give you pointers! And you better start doing the redemption thing now, becuase Yza f#@%ing hates people who pretend to be her without authorization!
If I am going to die, then at least in a memorable way Блядь
Wait, Блядь? Ты, блядь, слышал меня, Блядь?
She swears and curses, regaining control of her language proficiencies, regaining her eldritch blasts as well, preparing to blast the fiend pretending to be her patron as she moves closer.
Кровь за кровь Смерть за смерть
She repeats a quite universal warcry in Abyssal as suddenly
Her perspective shifts.
She is no longer bound, she holds the dagger, and on the stone slab is Szarith. Bound in red silken strings that cut deeply into his flesh, being tortured by spiders, that crawl within him, his hope keeping him alive... prolonging his torment he shouts her name Александра Эдгария Спаси меня, пожалуйста. Szarith asks in great pain.
Но как же She answers
Я не знаю, тогда, пожалуйста, убей меня!
He says, each word painfull.
She sees no way to help him or save him, as she prepares to stab him, she notices something.
First, Szarith did not speak Abyssal.
Second, she never told anyone in the group her second name.
Armed with that knowledge, she eyes Szariths form as it shifts, transforming into Ilvara, but with 6 additional spider legs that were about to trap her had she leaned in to stab Szarith.
Ill get you next time, insipid human dairy cow The priestess snarls.
Я надеру тебе задницу так сильно, что ты будешь целоваться лучше, потому что твое дыхание будет пахнуть моим кремом для обуви, а не твоими вредными испарениями..
Alexandra answers, immidiatly, feeling confident she can outinsult anything, no matter if its a Drow priestess, a Demon, or some eldritch abomination. The nightmare fades, as the priestess eyes her, taken aback by her taunting.
She looked around wildly for any sign of her little sister. Not seeing her, her panicked voice began to shriek her sister’s name, She ran towards a clump of shrubs, slipped in a pool of blood and went down hard on her left knee. She pushed herself up, getting coated in blood in the process and made it to the bushes but there was no Maggie. She screamed her sister’s name again and ran towards another possible hiding spot, tripping over a severed hoof and then slipping on some intestines. She was scared and felt sick to her stomach because she couldn’t find her sister and didn’t know what to do. Her vision blurred as the tears began to form and then she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and whirled to face what she hoped was Maggie.
Maddy gasped. Not believing what she saw, she tried to wipe the tears away and smeared blood on her face in the process. But he was still there. It was Matty, her twin! He would know what to do. She started to run towards him but slid to a stop on the blood-soaked grass. It was Matty but something was wrong. She hadn’t heard him approach and he was crying blood!
Matty raised his wand and pointed it at her. ”You! You did this!”, he shouted accusingly.
Her eyes widened in shock and she shook her head fiercely, ”No! How could you possibly think that I did this?”
He stabbed the air with his wand for emphasis and bellowed, ”I saw you!” Blood continued to streak down his face, ”I’ll give you one chance. What did you do with our sister?!?”
Maddy was horrified, ”That’s impossible! I told Maggie to hide, that’s all!”
With a grim look on his face, Matty practically whispered, ”Wrong answer.” Lightning exploded from the end of his wand and streaked unerringly towards Maddy and struck her in the chest.
Unbelievable pain coursed through Maddy’s body, splitting her. She couldn't move and watched aghast as someone stepped out of her body who looked exactly like her. They charged her brother with a speed that took him by surprise and he couldn’t make use of staff or wand before they had grappled him. Her vision began to darken and the last thing she saw before everything went black was the form that looked like her reaching for her brother’s eyes…”You won’t see anything now,” it growled.
Maddy sat bolt upright looking around wildly, her skin slicked with sweat and her cheeks wet from tears. Realizing she had had a nightmare, she hugged her knees to herself and buried her face between her arms. For the next few moments she did her best to assure herself that it had only been a dream.
=Kalanzar's watch (same exact timing as Ziyad)
The character becomes Frightened and must use his or her Action and Movement each round to flee from the source of the fear.
minutes
Please describe this. I'll let you decide how to interpret it.
= Kalanzar's watch (same exact timing as Maddy)
The character experiences vivid hallucinations and has disadvantage on Ability Checks.
minutes
Please describe this. I'll let you decide how to interpret it.
Maddy heard the scuff of someone's foot on the ground behind her and her head snapped up. Seconds later, she was on her feet. The witch who hurt Matty must have found her and had come to finish her off. If she had defeated her brother and his magic, what chance did Maddy have? Unexplained fear welled up in the young woman.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a hand reaching for her face...her eyes! Maddy grabbed the arm and tossed the body over her head, throwing it against the floor. Then she ran. There was no thought about where she ran, she just needed to get away from the witch.
During the 6th hour of the night, chaos erupts in the cavern. Maddy and Ziyad wake up with various screams and cries. The githzerai, mistaking the human barbarian for his daughter, reaches for her. Maddy, confusing the dream and her past with reality, makes a run for it. There is a great splashing in the pool of warm water, as Shuushar wakes from his watery sleep. The kua-toa thrashes in the pool, throwing water around on everybody, talking non-stop in his fishy language.
The derro and svirfneblin awoke, coughing and shouting, shaking water from their faces.
Ksenia stares at her father, feels the old horror of the night the citadel fell, of when life changed forever. She has blocked that memory, buried it so deep that she'd forgotten she'd even forgotten. She has pretended for years that she didn't remember, that she was too young to remember the night of fire and blood.
"You went back into the citadel!" Ksenia screams at him. "We were all free and then you went back in. And for what? To die screaming? While your daughter is raised by the city? I hope your honor was worth it, because if you hadn't died, you'd still be dead to me."
Type of madness upon waking up: The character becomes Frightened and must use his or her Action and Movement each round to flee from the source of the fear.
hours.
Early in the night, as the twins are set up on watch, and the others are settling down to sleep, Ksenia puts her head on a rock and falls instantly into a deep sleep. Within minutes she is dreaming, and a mere ten minutes later, wakes up suddenly with a shout. The dwarf staggers to her feet, staring around blindly, then begins to run back down the tunnel they'd arrived from.
Blin what the is even going on ? Alexandra wakes up, being quite confused at the pandemonium.
I was attacked in my dreams but fought it off, maybe the same happened to them, but they werent as lucky? She thinks
No shit, thats bad Alexandra eyes the panicking Ksenia and Maddy, deciding that trying to stop Maddy is going to be as likely as stopping an ogre, and thus tries to grapple Ksenia, instinctively using a cheeky little hold her Patron thought her. She does lack the prehensile tail to really pull it off though.
Shhh, relax, nothing to be afraid about Alexandra tries to calm her down while grappling her
For a moment, Ksenia relaxes in her friend's grasp, and the soft tones almost calm her, until the words land home. She remembers darkness flaring with flames, scuttling in the darkness of childhood, and a once loved voice calling out for her to come out because there was nothing to be afraid of.
The terror surges back up in Ksenia and she screams baffling at Alexandra, eyes glazed over and seeing only the past: "Du är inte min far!"
But her whipping limbs cannot escape Alexandra, and she falls limp and sobbing.
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What is even going on here, this is kind of outside of my area of expertize... Her thoughts race as Maddy squirms in her grip.
Against a more conventional grip it would have well work, but the cheeky little trick about it was that this grip was quite comfortable for whoever got grappled by it.
What did Yza do when I screwed up, if I cant snap her out of it, I need to put her to sleep, and give her time to snap out herself.
Relax, it is fine, you are safe with me Ksenia. Alex speaks with a gentle cooing voice.
Oh f&#$ no, noone is safe here and especially not you! We are in the Underdark, nearly without equipment, likely pursued by a bunch of professional slavers, murderers and torturers and several of our group members are going nuts! She thinks a the same time.
Just sleep Ksenia, tomorow it will all be better! She continues cooing Ksenia to sleep.
Shit, what happens if I flip out next night and kill someone, like Topsy or Turvy, oh please not them, by blasting them in the face because I lose control? F*@$! Her thoughts are far less pleaseant
You need rest Ksenia, just focus on my voice! And breath, never forget breathing! He cooing continues.
Oh right, on step after the other, first stap, unmadnessify or whatever Ksenia yes? I will use the same voice Yza used to that guy who overdosed, she got him under control and I am pretty sure Ksenia at least is not on Demon drugs so that a silver lining right there! I totally got this, right? Right? Her thoughts focus on every possible silver lining she could possible perceive.
Think of what we achieved! You stole all of those equipment, right from under their noses, be proud of yourself! You were even the only one of us who escaped without getting wet! Think of these little triumphs as you go back to sleep... She adjusts her position, making the grapple a bit more comfortable for both of them.
I wonder who will unmadness me if it hits me...
Her thoughts finish as she hopefully puts Ksenia to sleep.
Alex manages to wrestle/soothe Ksenia out of her bout of madness, and after ten minutes or so the dwarf falls into a restless sleep.
5 hours later in the night, Ziyad, Shuushar and Maddy all awake from nightmares. What with the splashing and screaming, it takes a while for the others to realize that Maddy is gone. Jimjar scrambles to his feet and finds her on her rump, rubbing blood from her eyes and looking confused. The svirfneblin guides her back to the cavern, where the others are finally coming to their senses.
Shuushar hauls himself out of the pool, rubbing at a cut on his foot. ::There's something sharp down there. Not a rock - it felt like metal.::
***
Shoor leads a group of drow along the path, smirking. "They're not even trying to hide their trail," he says to Ilvara, who is watching him icily. "We'll be upon them with a night, I'm certain of it." Ilvara nods curtly, beyond furious. It is clear from the look in her eyes that Shoor had better not disappoint her.
Something metal? Could be worthwhile!
Alexandra attempts to investigate the pool, how deep is it, can she see through it, including with her devils sight etc?
I can armor myself in Ice and go down, but ideally someone pinpoints the items location for me She announced to the party.
The water is covered in the pinkish mist, and quite murky. It's impossible to see further than a foot or two down. Shuushar cut his foot on it while flailing about, so it's probably not more than 5-6 feet down.
However, it's not only Maddy who is missing - Kalanzar is following in her footsteps. While the mass madness was going on, the drow quietly watched, letting the allies cope with it and looking for the weakest link. He wasn't surprised when it turned out to be someone whose consciousness was obviously split... even before the Underdark, most likely. Kalanzar just got up and quietly followed Maddy, not forgetting to leave notes to find the way back. He won't be able to grab her, but he can help her find her way back when she wakes up.
Maddy struggled finding her way in the dark but her fear drove her forward. It was like she could feel the witch's breath on the back of her neck. She scrambled along the wall thinking she was making headway and then , she hit her head on something hard in the dark and was suddenly on her butt. She tried to get up but her head began to swim and she sank back down to the ground as her stomach churned.
The pain and confusion pushes the fear aside and Maddy begins to wonder what happened and how she got here. Sadly, she was used to waking up in strange places with no memory of how she got there. Blood trickled down into her eyes. She quickly wiped it away and strained to look into the darkness to see if there was a body. Whenever she came to with no memory of how she got there, there was always a body.
This was how Jimjar found Maddy, hurt and confused in the dark.
Jimjar cautiously approached the young woman like one would approach a wounded animal, "Maddy?"
She turned towards his voice even though it was difficult to see anything without light, "Jimjar? Is that you? What happened?" She wanted to ask him if she'd killed anyone but wasn't sure she wanted the answer.
"Let's get you back to camp then we can talk about what happened. Now, I'm going to take your hand so I can lead you back, okay?"
Maddy nodded her head slowly and then winces at the pain and surge of vertigo. "I may need a moment."
We're here. Good job, Jimjar. Maddy doesn't see the face, but recognizes a familiar voice, which continues after a pause. I can see in your eyes what you want to ask. No, no one was hurt. We're going back...
Alexandra purplish (due to her fiendish sight atm) eyes glow brigthly and manifest the Abyssal rune of loot (which incidentally looks like this: ) in front of her for a second, as she gingerly joinks the marine rake and enthusiastically begins searching!
Bippitty Boppitty that loot be our property She hums, the prospect of things to be found clearly putting her adventorous adventurer mind at ease from the travails of the night.
It doesn't take long for Alexandra to snag whatever is in the pool. It turns out to be quite heavy, and she needs a few of the others to help her haul up her booty. When they finally bring it to the surface of the hot-pool, it turns out to be a well-cooked corpse.
The body is big; the person must have been tall in life. Their clothes are little more than scraps, but the leather armour is still in decent condition. A short spear is tangled up in their belt, and must be what Shuushar cut himself on. Unlike a very rusty dagger in the corpse's sheath, the spear is in pristine condition.
They also have a sturdy leather backpack which looks quite full. They empty it to find the following contents:
*A short sword with a leather hilt. On one side of the hilt is an embossed dwarf, holding the sword in his hand. On the other is a female halfling, empty hand raised.
*A small silk burgundy pouch that feels like it has a few small items in it.
*A medium-sized dark grey linen pouch that feels empty.
*A quiver with three black cross-bow bolts
*A stylish dark-blue beret.
*A round steel shield with unusual enarmes - they're not made of leather, but of some bizarre, flexible metal.
*A very small gourd with a cork stopper. It has a presumably magical sigil inscribed on it. It feels like it's full of a liquid.
*A pair of thick, light blue wooly socks.
Dibs!
Alexandra immidiatly puts on stylish dark-blue Beret.
Мода никогда не умрет!
Anyone has an idea if any of that is magical? She asks, happily admiring her reflection in Ksenias chain mail.
Lets have a look at whats in the small silk burgundy pouch after checking for magiks!
We could use the socks to lay false tracks! Like, someone other then me should because I have no idea on how to practically do this, maybe they could also be repurposed into slings to give more people ranged options.
Alex says, cleary also eyed the leather armor and the round steel shield.
1 Rusty Dagger (dont care)
1 Leather armor (11AC) (would like)
1 Belt (doubt its magical, but hej, clothes)
1 Short Spear (I would like either that or the sword, but not important)
1 Short sword (I would like either that or the spear, but not important)
1 silk burgundy pouch (lets loot it after det. magic?)
1 prob. empty grey linen pouch (hej, stuff)
1 quiver with 3 bolts (our first actual quiver)
1 Beret (yoinked) (I am clearly the fashionista of the group yes)
1 round steel shield (either me or Maddy of Ksenia? Shield iirc stacks ith unarmored defense)
1 unided potion
1 pair of socks warm thick socks! Can be used either as improvised weapons, after putting rocks in them, or to mislead enemies, or repurposed into slings, or actually used as socks.
Oi, thats a hat of swapping! Cool, I can use it to swap places with someone else who wears any hat, and whom I can see, 3 times per day! Can we refashion the socks into hats? Alexandra asks.
We're here. Good job, Jimjar. Maddy doesn't see the face, but recognizes a familiar voice, which continues after a pause. I can see in your eyes what you want to ask. No, no one was hurt. We're going back...
Visible relief shows on Maddy's face, "It's not often I wake up after blacking out where I've only hurt myself." She slowly gets to her feet, using her free hand to brace herself against the wall that had so recently knocked her on her butt. "Thank you, Jimjar and Kalanzar, for tracking me down. I would have been utterly lost on my own."
Having no light, her two guides who could see in the dark efficiently led Maddy back to the group. They arrived just in time to see the contents of the backpack emptied.
While the others took stock of the contents and attempted to determine if there was anything special about the contents, Maddy sat down and rested her head.
Topsy and Turvy grabbed for the empty pouch - they apparently had a few items they'd scrounged that needed a safe space. However, when Turvy opened the bag, she exclaimed, "What's this!?"
She pulled out a grey, fuzzy object. She gave it a cautious sniff, then dismissing it as garbage, tossed it on the ground behind her. . There was a strange popping sound, and suddenly a furry creature, bigger than the svirfneblin, stood on four legs behind her. It was mostly grey, with a black and white striped face and small white ears. It bared its teeth, revealing sharp canines, and let out a startled huffing sound.
Turvy screamed, throwing herself backwards away from it and nearly ending up in the pool. Jimjar let out a shout, and Buppido scrambled backwards away from it. Topsy fumbled for the crossbow, trying to load a bolt.
Shhhh we are not your foes, relax
Alexandra tries to coo it into not being aggressive, while motioning to the party to not attack it yet.
She motions to Kalanzar as well.
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Maddie looked up at the commotion made by the twins and Jimjar. Her eyes fell on the furry animal. "It's a badger but larger than any one I've ever seen before. They're viscous if threatened so I wouldn't corner it. It's probably frightened and disoriented after being trapped in that bag."
Alexandra thinks.
OK, this badger could be a really useful thing for us! But how do we make it ours? And how would Yza look like if she was a badger?
How I would look if I was what? While I can alter myself at will, I have never seen the need to turn into a badger. I do however maintain the clear need of protecting my reputation, as such, all illusions of me need to confirm to the highest optical standards. As such:
An image of an incredibly attractive female badger appears in her mind, as she conjured this very badger as an illusion!
A female badger, displaying sleek elegant whiskers accentuating a perfect set of white and exceedingly sharp teeth, further enchanced by slightly purplish eyes displaying a keen intellect and an unquenching demand for tubby rubs, appears!
The Yza-badger is thin but quite well muscled, and moves with the absolute grace of an Apex predator, a grace that is only mildly disturbed by the fact that it is currently on its back and getting a tubby rub from Alexandra , and greatly enjoys it in total deadly predator silence.
The implications are she hopes to transmit are the following,
Alexandra is a somewhat marginally useful two legged thing, that delivers good tubby rubs, and should be protected from its own stupidity, as long as one can be bothered to, because 2 legged things are pretty weird and need protection! Most of them dont even have claws or proper teeth, poor non-obviously-innately-superior-badger thingies! Well, some of them can build things, so they arent compeltely useless! Maybe they get to be reborn as badgers if they deliver enough tubby rubs of sufficient quality!
Yzalina? Alexandra queries her patron, the connection apparently strenghtened by ongoing Antic and shenanigians.
Yes my dear?
Do badgers really think like that?
Let me check the nearest whiskered rodent remover, I do have detect thoughts at will after all and, yes, they totally do!
Rodent remover, are you sure its not a cat?
Cat? Badger? Do I look like having any proficiency in animal handling or survival? Irrelevant anyway, must give tubby rub.
The connection cuts.
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The giant badger looked mighty interested in the tummy rubs. It sidled up to image-badger, and looked confused when it walked right through it. However, it happily rolled over, clawed feet in the air, and accepted tummy rubs from everybody who wanted to provide them.
Topsy reluctantly put down the crossbow, and allowed Turvy to tug him towards the Great-Dane-sized badger. A moment later, the twins were giggling as their hands practically vanished into the thick coat of the badger.
It seemed the "rest period" was over, and they gathered their wits and items about them. The last bites of roasted fungus were eaten, and the water-bladder was drained. The water from the warm-pool was tested and deemed potable, though it had a heavy mineral flavor.
Finally, the bedraggled group was ready to continue their flight, aware that every hour they tarried increased their chances of getting recaptured.
Alex puts the dead body in a repsectfull resting position, makes some Abyssal summoning circles around it.
And also writes:
Дорогая Ильвара,
Я бы хотела увидеть твое лицо, когда ты узнаешь, что мы вызвали, но в тот момент у тебя может уже не быть лица.
Александра
Dear Ilvara,
I would love to see your face when you find out what we summoned, but you may not have one at that point.
Alexandra
Kalanzar is absolutely fascinated by this animal, and how Alexandra deftly treated and made friends with it. He comes up and strokes the badger, and you see the warmest smile on his face all this time when his hands are immersed in the fur. However, he does not do this for a long time and recommends others not to get carried away so as not to unnerve the animal - it is clear that he respects the personal boundaries of the badger as well as any other member of the squad.
It's time to go. Drow becomes serious again and even a little frowning.
Knowing what regular badgers were normally like, Maddy tentatively reached out to give the giant badger a belly rub when it was her turn. It felt real but there was no way that a real animal would be able to survive in a bag that small. She had so many questions but Matty wasn't here to answer them. And honestly, she didn't even know what to ask.
She cringed at the thought of Matty which reminded her of her nightmare. Those were images that she hoped would fade from her mind sooner than later.
Hearing Kalanzar call for them to go, Maddy nodded. She picked up some of the items that looked like no one was planning on claiming, including the backpack. They were definitely lacking in the ability to carry items. "If anyone has small items they don't want to carry, put them in the backpack and I'll carry it for you. The extra weight won't slow me down."
She picked up the short sword and liked the balance of the blade. She also noticed that it was sharper than the scimitar she had taken from the drow. She replaces the scimitar with the recently acquired short sword and was soon ready to keep moving.
Alexandra picks up the chainshirt and shortspear, wielding it with a surprising degree of competence,
before putting a sock on Turvies head and trying to find out if it counts as a hat for the Switch-hats purposes thing works.
Ksenia is still shaken from the panic of the night, and she quietly thanks Alexandra for her help, embarrassed at losing control and terrified of what might have happened if she'd been allowed to escape running into the endless darkness of the tunnels around them.
The squints suspiciously at the badger and keeps her distance. "I prefer a proper city where animals don't just wander around. It's unsanitary."
The night's terrors remaining vivid in her mind's eye, especially the vision of her father covered in blood, Ksenia votes for moving as quickly as possible.
She eyes the chainshirt with a critical eye, and slips it on for a moment, but realizes that it constrains her movement too much to be comfortable, and she hands it back to Alexandra. "About like wearing a kettle to a square dance, it's yours if you want it."
Maddy takes a look around just before they leave to make sure they didn't forget anything, then something else occurs to her. "We're pretty sure that the drow will come after us. I know how to obscure tracks in the forest but I find it a bit more challenging down here where the path is more limited. Maybe a few of us can work together to make us harder to follow?"
The young woman did what she could to remove visible tracks and any sign that they'd disturbed their surroundings.
After she had carried her new sword for a while, she sensed that the sword was telling her about itself. Oddly enough, she felt like if someone else also got to know the sword by spending time with it that the two of them would be able to share it. Maddy sought out Ksenia since she seemed to know how to use a blade as well and she shared what she had sensed from the weapon with the dwarf. "Are you interested in sharing the weapon? Once you have a feel for it and it for you, I can carry it but if you need it then I think you can just call it."
Kalanzar gratefully accepts the scimitar and burgundy pouch, if Alexandra offers him these items . While Maddy will hide the tracks, Kalanzar will create false ones, directing the enemy in the wrong direction.
(Mabye advantadge because I am definitly enlisting T&T to assist in this, they even get to blast with the finger gun!)
Pew Pew Pew!
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The party of escapees gather up their new treasures, and leave the strange hot-pool-cavern behind. Afraid of dawdling, they try to pick up the pace a bit. Topsy and Turvy, now quite smitten with the giant badger, ride on it. Stool takes up his position on Ziyad's head, and Jimjar hustles along behind.
An hour or so into the trip, the twins and Alexandra conspire to find a spot that looks likely for a cave-in. It takes five minutes, and a substantial amount of noise, but the warlock is finally able to trigger a cave-in. Between Maddy erasing tracks and Kalanzar trying to lay false ones, they felt good about their chances.
At another junction, the kuo-toa paused, sniffing down a long, narrow passageway. ::Here! I smell the Dark Lake. It is still far, but this smells like home.:: Uncertain, the others stare at the cleft in the stone. It is narrow - perhaps too narrow? If they risk it and have to back-track it could cause a dangerous delay. On the other hand, if their guide is correct, they could lose their assumed followers here, at least for a while.
They spend a short time laying a false trail, then head carefully into the tunnel. They decide not to cave it in, in case they need to return this way.
After a few minutes, they begin splashing through puddles. A stream trickles through here, much to Shuushar's delight. The passageway also begins to brighten. A green, bioluminescent moss grows on the stone, sticking to their clothes and fur as they brush up against it. It sheds dim light for five feet, which is wider than the tunnel.
Despite a few tight turns, the passageway ends up being navigable for a full hour before they pass through a small waterfall. Beyond that, the passageway is dry, and shortly after they pop out onto a ledge, facing a chasm.
The ledge is nearly 20 feet wide at this point. The chasm seems immense. The bottom is lost in darkness, as is the other side. Looking up, none of you can see the ceiling. However, a vast network of spiders webs run upwards and downwards from your ledge, off into the darkness.
The ledge cuts off to the left of the passageway and angles slightly upwards. The cliff-side is too uneven to let you see more than about 50 feet away.
"I've heard of this place" Jimjar whispers. "The Silken Paths. Didn't know we were anywhere near it. They say the chasm is 5 miles long, and half-a-mile across. And all of it full of webs. And spiders. And other things."
You have been travelling for 3 hours at this point. I assumed normal pace for the first 2 hours, and quick through the narrow passageway.
Remind yourself of the travel notes that I put in the slide deck (3rd slide). There are lots of rolls that you can be making if you want to find your way, forage, etc. I will not automatically make the NPCs do this (other than Shuushar trying to lead the way at the moment).
Since Maddy and Kalanzar are working on tracks, I've put them at the back of the marching order for the moment. I didn't add the badger, but assume that it's with T&T.
Questions??